Ka Hsaw Wa, Co-Founder and Executive Director, is a member of the Karen ethnic nationality of Burma. He was one of the student leaders in the 1988 nation-wide student uprising for democracy and freedom, and has been a human rights activist since he fled Burma in 1988. As well as managing and directing the overall operations of EarthRights International, Ka Hsaw Wa coordinates a grassroots field staff that has successfully documented human rights and environmental abuses within Burma. The evidence collected has served as a cornerstone in the ground-breaking lawsuit against Unocal and in the decision of the International Labor Organization to pressure Burma’s brutal regime. Ka Hsaw Wa has been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, Reebok Human Rights Award, Whitley Fund for Nature/Sting and Trudie Styler Award for Human Rights and the Environment, the Conde Nast Environmental Award, and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership for his work in defense of human rights and the environment. Ka Hsaw Wa splits his time between the U.S. and Southeast Asia offices.
Chana Maung, Southeast Asia Office Director, has been with ERI since 1997, and is currently responsible for leading and overseeing all of ERI Southeast Asia’s program work, fact-finding and research activities. He also provides oversight for management issues, such as hiring and finances in Asia. Chana is a Karen man, who has worked for years to document forced labor, violence, economic and social rights violations in Burma. Chana has received training from the School for International Training in NGO management. He also has additional training in conflict resolution. Chana speaks Thai, Karen, Burmese, and English.
Katharine Redford, Esq., Co-Founder and US Office Director, is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where she received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Human Rights and Public Service. She is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar and served as counsel to plaintiffs in ERI's landmark case Doe v. Unocal. Katie received an Echoing Green Fellowship in 1995 to establish ERI, and since that time has split her time between ERI's Thailand and US offices. In addition to working on ERI's litigation and teaching at the EarthRights Schools, Katie serves as an adjunct professor of law at both UVA and the Washington College of Law at American University, and also on the Boards of the Bank Information Center (BIC), the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), and Oil Change International. She has published on various issues associated with human rights and corporate accountability. In 2006, she was selected as an Ashoka Global Fellow. Katie has been profiled in the books Be Bold and Your America: Democracy's Local Heroes, and the award-winning documentary film Total Denial.
Marie Soveroski, Managing Director, lived and worked for 15 years in Europe, where she served as Director of the European Centre for Judges and Lawyers, the Luxembourg-based Antenna of the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), from 2001-2005. Prior to that she worked out of EIPA headquarters in Maastricht (NL) on legal and capacity building projects in the countries in transition in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe. Her focus and passion has been environmental law and protection, as well as human rights issues, which she has pursued both as a lawyer and as an activist. She has an LLM in International and Comparative Law, which she earned at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels (B). She earned her JD at Gonzaga University School of Law as a Thomas More Scholar, a full-tuition scholarship program for persons pursuing a career in law in the public interst. She has Bachelors degrees in Biology and Environmental Resource Management. She has both US and Dutch nationality.
Naing Htoo, Acting Burma Campaigns Director, is a Karen man and graduate from the EarthRights School. He has worked with ERI since 1998, coordinating ERI’s documentation on forced labor, particularly surrounding development projects in Burma. Naing Htoo also conducts advocacy with international financial institutions on Burma. His research and fact-finding have reached key policymakers at the International Labour Organization, the United Nations, and various governments around the world. Naing Htoo speaks Skaw Karen, Thai, Burmese and English.
Nang Aung, Administrative Associate, joined ERI as an Administrative Associate in July 2004. She previously worked with Shan Women's Action Network as a volunteer on a women's education project and also worked for some time with the Shan School (SSSNY) as their Office Manager. Nang Aung completed a Women and Development Course run by the Women's League of Burma in 2003. She speaks Shan, Thai, English, Burmese and Chinese (Mandarin).
Alek Nomi, Research & Program Coordinator, holds an MA in Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, with a focus on the anthropology of food and development in China. He conducts research and writes reports for ERI about Chinese and other foreign involvement in Burma’s extractive energy sector, and also works closely with indigenous and grassroots leaders in China, the Mekong region and the Peruvian Amazon on social and environmental issues related to oil, natural gas, hydropower and other natural resource development projects. Alek speaks English, Spanish and Chinese, and is currently learning Thai.
Raa Hoo Lar, Burma Alumni Local Program Coordinator is responsible for overall coordination of the Burma Alumni program. He is a member of the Pa-O ethnic group and has worked with the Pa-O Youth Organization and Ethnic Cooperation for Human Rights and Environment since 2001. He graduated the EarthRights School in 2002 and worked as a training coordinator at the Mae Tao Clinic for three years in Mae Sot. He has conducted several workshops and trainings along the Thai-Burma border on issues such as human rights, environment, and social change. He speaks Pa-O, Burmese, English, and Thai.
Daniel King, Asia Legal Director, coordinates ERI’s legal program in the Mekong sub-region, including the Mekong Legal Advocacy Institute and Mekong Legal Network programs. Prior to joining ERI, Daniel worked as a legal advisor to Cambodian public interest lawyers representing urban, rural and indigenous communities fighting for their land rights. He has experience with international legal advocacy and community engagement. Daniel has also worked as a lawyer in the environment and planning jurisdiction in Australia, representing both corporate and public interest clients. Daniel holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences and Bachelor of Laws from Sydney University and is completing a Masters of Public and International Law at Melbourne University. He is admitted to legal practice in New South Wales, Australia. Daniel speaks basic legal Khmer and is learning Thai.
Maureen Kelly, Deputy Office Director, works to support the Southeast Asia Office Director and manages the Burma Alumni Program. She has a Master of Laws specialising in human rights and social justice from the University of New South Wales and bachelor degrees in Law and Arts from the University of Sydney. She has previously managed international human rights programs in the Asia-Pacific, focusing on China and Vietnam, with the Australian Human Rights Commission. She has also worked on human rights and humanitarian law research and capacity building projects with the South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre in India and the Danish Red Cross, and as an English teacher in Japan. Maureen is a native English speaker, and also speaks some Chinese and Spanish. She is currently learning Thai.
Bobbie Sta. Maria, Asia Legal Program Coordinator, attended the first two sessions of the Mekong Legal Advocacy Institute. She is a member of the Philippine bar and practiced law with the Alternative Legal Assistance Center (SALIGAN) in the Philippines. Her work involved litigating land rights, environmental rights and domestic abuse cases, advocating agrarian reform and gender policy laws, and training paralegals in rural areas in the Philippines. She has a Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines and will shortly have a Masters of Human Rights and Democratisation – Asia Pacific from the University of Sydney. She did technical support work for the Center for Constitutional Dialogue in Nepal as a project for her Masters degree.
Zaw Zaw, Program Associate, joined ERI's campaigns team in 2010 after graduating from the EarthRights School Burma in 2008 and interning with ERI in 2009. Zaw Zaw is responsible for fact-finding for ERI's work in Burma. Previously, he worked at Network for Environment and Economic Development (NEED) as Student Coordinator and at the National Youth Forum as an intern. He studied law at the University of Sittwe. Zaw Zaw is from the Arakan ethnic group.
Ross Dana Flynn, Web & IT Coordinator (SE Asia), is a graduate of American University's School of International Service in Washington, DC. Before joining ERI, Ross worked as a travel photographer and web designer throughout Southeast Asia. He currently manages technology and communications for ERI's Southeast Asia offices. Ross speaks English and Japanese.
Khin Nanda, Program Coordinator, EarthRights School Burma, assists with coordinating the ERS training program, helps to create a positive, cooperative learning environment and assists participants with translation. She co-facilitates classes on environmental issues and conflict transformation. Khin Nanda is a Shan alumna of the EarthRights School, and she has also received advanced training of trainers as well as participated in a conflict resolution short-course at the School for International Training (SIT) in Vermont in the United States. She interned with ERI's Burma Project for six months before joining the EarthRights School in late 2001.
Tong Teng, Administrative Associate, is a member of the Karen ethnic group and has worked at the school since 2001. His responsibilities have grown significantly with time, and now include accounting, buildings and grounds maintenance and coordinating overall logistics. He took a four-month computer class in 2003 in preparation for overseeing our computerized accounting. Tong Teng speaks Skaw Karen, Po Karen, Thai, Burmese, and English.
Sabrina Kathleen, Training Director, is responsible for overall coordination of EarthRights International's training programs. Sabrina has worked in refugee camps in Thailand, and with refugee and immigrant communities in the US. She holds an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and MA in International Studies from the University of Oregon. She comes to ERI after a number of years with the Chiang Mai University Women’s Studies Center, where she developed curriculum and organized exposure trips and seminars on human rights, environmental justice and the impacts of globalization on women in the Mekong region. Sabrina speaks fluent Thai, Lao, and English, and basic Khmer and Mandarin.
Yaowalak Srikhampa (Tin), Program Associate, EarthRights School Mekong has been a leader in her local youth group campaigning to protect her home town and the environment for over ten years. Most recently, she worked with Southeast Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN) on the Pak Moon Dam in Ubon Ratchathanee, the Rasi Salai Dam in Sisaket Province and the Kaeng Sue Ten Dam in Phrae Province. In 2003, she also coordinated the 2003 World Dam-Affected People's meeting in Northern Thailand. She is currently completing her Master's thesis on Gender, Local Knowledge, and Community Food Security under Globalization at Chiang Mai University. Tin speaks Thai and English.
Prajak Srikhampa (Tho), Program Assistant, EarthRights School Mekong, is an activist from Phrae province of Northern Thailand. Over the past decade, Tho has served as a leader in the Takorn Yom youth group, campaigning to protect his home town from the controversial Kaeng Seua Ten dam project. Most recently, he worked with the IUCN and Southeast Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN) to conduct research on the effects of dams on communities in North and Northeast Thailand. He also assisted in coordinating the Second International Meeting of Dam Affected People and their Allies in Rasi Salai, Thailand in November of 2003. Tho speaks Thai, Lao and English.
Hannah El, Training Coordinator, EarthRights School Mekong is responsible for teaching classes with the ERS training program and assisting in the coordination of ERSM. She has a B.A. in Politics from Oberlin College and a Master of Science in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Before joining ERI she worked on youth organizing and immigrants' rights in the United States and England. She is also an experienced trainer and educator on topics including EFL, conflict resolution, and strategic campaigning. She speaks English, Spanish, and Japanese.
Nyein Tun, Training Associate, EarthRights School Burma is responsible for assisting with activities at ERSB. Prior to joining the ERI team, Nyein Tun was a 2006 graduate of the program and served as an intern supporting students needs inside and outside the classroom. He is a member of the Arakanese ethnic group and completed his first year study in Geography, at the University of Sittwe. He has worked for the Network for Environment and Economic Development and in 2007 he was nominated to be the Secretary of the EarthRights Student Union.
Saiaew, Mekong Alumni Program Coordinator, is a 2005 EarthRights School Mekong alumni. She has worked as a journalist with the online alternative media service Prachadhrama News Net (PNN) and the Horizontal Media Project, where she produced in-depth articles and documentary films on human rights and environmental issues. During her time at the Mekong School, she conducted research on the potential impacts of Pak Chom Dam, one of the controversial mainstream Mekong dams spanning Thailand and Lao PDR. Upon return from her field work, Saiaew brought concerns around Pak Chom and the mainstream Mekong dams to public attention by taking the stage at the ASEAN Peoples’ Forum, and after graduation, she has shown commitment to local communities by returning several times to her field site to organize workshops and activities to promote increased awareness and public participation in decision-making. She is from an ethnic Phutai community in Kalasin Province, Northeastern Thailand, and speaks Phutai, Lao, Thai, and English.
Patrick O'Connors, Training Associate, EarthRights School Burma received a B.A. in English and Comparative Literature and a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, particularly focusing on literature and critical theory pertaining to South Asia. He spent two years studying Hindi at university and lived in India for six months during his junior year, where he did research and volunteered at an NGO which provided freeeducation to local Dalits (“untouchables”) in Bodh Gaya. While conducting his research and volunteering, he was living in a Burmese monastery, which is where he first developed an interest in issues related to Burma.
Eliza Costello, Training Coordinator, EarthRights School Burma received a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in Distributive Justice and minors in Creative Writing and Chinese. She volunteered with the Friends of Farmworkers Law Firm in Philadelphia to improve the conditions of farmworkers, and worked as a news reporter for ChinaOnTV.com in Shanghai. Most recently, she worked in Prey Veng, Cambodia researching women’s health and sanitation for the Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC). She is a native speaker of English, speaks Mandarin Chinese, has a basic knowledge of Spanish and Khmer and is currently learning Thai.
Lily la Torre Lopez, Senior Amazon Consultant, was born in the Peruvian Amazon and graduated with degrees in law and philosophy from the Pontifical Catholic University of Perú. Prior to joining ERI, Lily was the Director of the Peruvian NGO Grupo de Trabajo Racimos de Ungurahui, where she worked since 1995. With Racimos, Lily has worked with ERI’s legal team on its litigation against Occidental Petroleum. Lily has provided advice and training to indigenous federations at the local and national levels, mainly on legal issues related to the exploitation of natural resources of the Amazon forest by national and international companies, and the environmental and social impacts resulting from these activities on indigenous lands; this work resulted in a historic 2006 environmental remediation agreement between Achuar, Quichua, and Urarina communities of the Corrientes River Basin and the Argentine oil company Pluspetrol. Since 1985, she has also been a member of the legal advisory team of the National Legal Defense Program of Amazon indigenous organizations in Perú and the Interethnic Association for Development of the Peruvian Jungle, AIDESEP.
Ximena Warnaars, Amazon Program Coordinator, is an anthropologist who has worked as a coordinator, researcher, and activist on issues relating to human rights, indigenous people, and environmental justice. For almost ten years her work has focused on mining and oil conflicts involving indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon and Ecuador. She co-initiated a program to support Quechua women affected by mining activities in Apurimac and Cusco, Peru. She worked as an activist and performed extensive research on the impacts of large scale mining projects in Ecuador’s southern Amazon while living in the Cordillera del Cóndor. Ximena worked with communities affected by the oil and gas industry in the Peruvian Amazon in particular with the Shipibo-Konibo peoples affected by Maple Gas in the Peruvian Amazon, while working for the regional AIDESEP organisation ORAU. She is an active member and editor of the Mines and Communities network. She was a lecturer in the Amazonian Studies Masters Program at the University of San Marcos. Ximena holds a BA and MA in Anthropology from the University of Utrecht and is a PhD candidate at the School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester.
Marissa Vahlsing, Amazon Legal Fellow, graduated in 2011 from Harvard Law School, where she was awarded both a Henigson Human Rights Fellowship and a Sheldon Fellowship to work with ERI for a year. While at Harvard, Marissa spent two years working as a clinical student on human rights cases involving both international advocacy and federal litigation under the Alien Tort Statute. During this time, Marissa conducted fieldwork and worked with clients in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ghana and South Africa, and helped to write amicus briefs in several other ATS cases. Marissa holds a B.A. in Political Science from Swarthmore College (2006), where she received a Harry S. Truman scholarship to pursue a career in public service and to work with the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) before attending law school.
Benjamin Hoffman, Amazon Legal Fellow, is a 2011 graduate of Harvard Law School, where he received the Dean’s Award for Community Leadership for his work in the area of human rights. While in law school, Benjamin worked with Harvard’s International Human Rights Clinic, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Colombian NGO DeJuSticia. Through this work, Benjamin has provided legal, policy, and advocacy support to communities in Latin America, South Africa and the United States affected by development projects, resource extraction, armed conflict, state violence, and Apartheid. Benjamin has joined EarthRights on an external fellowship to help get our new Amazon office off the ground while exploring methodologies for empowering affected communities relative to multinational corporations through transnational litigation and other advocacy strategies.
Marco Simons, Esq., Legal Director, is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he received the Robert L. Bernstein Fellowship in International Human Rights to work with EarthRights International. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Dorothy Wright Nelson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He then worked for Hadsell & Stormer, Inc., a Pasadena civil rights law firm, which is co-counsel with ERI on Doe v. Unocal and Bowoto v. Chevron. He also served as Communications Director for the campaign of Ro Khanna for U.S. Congress in California's 12th District, and has taught human rights law at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Marco holds an undergraduate degree in environmental science and, prior to law school, worked on developing educational materials on conservation biology. He is currently admitted to practice in California, Washington DC, and Washington state.
Richard L. Herz, Esq., Litigation Coordinator, is a 1993 Order of the Coif graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served on the Virginia Law Review. In 1994, he clerked for the Hon. Raymond A. Jackson, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia. Rick was the 1997-1998 Natural Resources Law Institute Fellow at Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College, where he wrote"Litigating Environmental Abuses Under the Alien Tort Claims Act: A Practical Assessment" , an article about suing multinational corporations for environmental abuses under the Alien Tort Claims Act. He is a member of the New York State Bar. At ERI, Rick directs our work on cases against multinational corporations for international human rights and environmental abuses. As such he is co-counsel for the plaintiffs in Doe v. Unocal, Bowoto v. Chevron, Sahu v. Union Carbide and Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. He has also filed amicus briefs in various U.S. Circuit and District courts on behalf of NGOs and law professors in important human rights cases, and he advises human rights and environmental activists and lawyers on international law.
Jonathan Kaufman, Staff Attorney, holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School (2006) and a Master in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton (2008). He has worked on human rights and land rights issues at both the international and local level. Jonathan has been a member of the legal team on two cases in front of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, represented dozens of clients in front of public housing authorities and disability benefits review boards, and researched and written on human rights and indigenous issues in Guyana, Tanzania, and Taiwan. In 2002-2003, after graduating from Yale University with both a B.A. and M.A. in Chinese, Jonathan was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan. He speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, and Spanish.
Paul Donowitz, Esq., Campaign Director, is a 2003 graduate of Columbia University Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar along with serving on the Human Rights Law Review and in the Human Rights Clinic. He then worked as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Service Employees International Union, focusing on new market organizing in the public sector. He has served as national coordinator for an international human rights organization. Other experience includes work for Social Accountability International, a labor standard setting and accreditation organization, and experience conducting research and training in India with a human rights group. Paul holds an undergraduate degree in South Asian Studies and Sociology from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Maggie Schuppert, Development Coordinator, is primarily responsible for coordinating ERI's grant submissions, foundation relations and proposal writing. Most recently, she was residing in San Francisco where she was the Development Coordinator at the Global Citizen Center, a non-profit initiative of Global Exchange, which works to promote our transition to a Green Economy. Prior to this, Maggie was at the Social Science Research Council's Program on Global Security and Cooperation, where she provided support to the Program's various projects including the administration of an international fellowship program aimed at nurturing innovative research and collaboration between academics and practitioners around the issues of human security. She holds a BSFS from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and an MA in International Relations from the University of Essex (UK) where she focused her studies on human and environmental rights and normative political theory.
Brad Weikel, Web & Communications Coordinator, is experienced in print, online & multimedia communications, as well as software engineering. In his previous position, he was the Managing Editor for gnovis, Georgetown University's peer-reviewed Journal of Communication, Culture & Technology (CCT). Prior to that, he was webmaster for the Middle East Institute. He holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Washington and an MA in Communication, Culture & Technology from Georgetown University, where he studied emerging social media systems and collaborative production and wrote a thesis on procedural tropes in software development practices.
Brenden Sloan, Development Associate, is primarily responsible for individual gifts, outreach and event planning, and assists with all aspects of ERI's development program. Prior to joining ERI, Brenden worked at Human Rights USA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing human rights abuses through litigation in US Courts. He has bachelors degrees in International Affairs and Spanish, as well as a Graduate Certificate in INGO Management, all from James Madison University. While at JMU, Brenden was involved with Amnesty International, the Clean Energy Coalition, and Alternative Spring Break, where he organized a hurricane relief service trip to New Orleans and co-coordinated a long-term economic development plan for the island of La Ganove in Haiti. Brenden has also traveled and worked with organizations throughout South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. He speaks conversational Spanish and is studying Portuguese.
Amol Mehra, Coordinator of the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR), is an international human rights lawyer focusing on corporate accountability for human rights violations and corporate social responsibility. He has developed an extensive background on business and human rights issues, including at the United Nations where he has worked to build accountability over private security companies and offered submissions to the mandate of the Special Representative on Transnational Corporations. Amol received his Juris Doctorate Degree with an Honors Certificate in International and Comparative Law from the University of San Francisco School of Law, and also hold a Bachelor of Commerce with a concentration in Global Strategic Management and the Social Context of Business from McGill University. In addition to his work at ERI, Amol is a Board Member for Human Rights Advocates, a Coordinating Member and Thematic Specialist for Amnesty International USA, and writes for Forbes.com CSR site. He is fluent in French and conversant in Hindi.
* For security reasons, some ERI staff members have elected to withhold their names or surnames from our website.
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ERI staff, February 2010
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